In today’s Gospel from Luke, Peter addresses the crowd and states: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised." This is a fairly simple message, one that ought to make sense to us. But I would like to emphasize a word that I, at least, tend to just skip over: must.

Must is an interesting word with an interesting context. “I must go to work in order to make the money to pay the bills.” “You must always treat others with dignity and respect.” “One must first be an adult before they are allowed to vote.” From the sounds of things,“must” seems like a trap: a series of shackles that inhibits your freedom and keeps you from doing as you wish. And so often it is.

So, was Jesus by-gosh-by-golly forced, obliged, coerced to be beaten by strips of leather, stabbed by a crown of piercing thorns, and then above all, to be crucified upon a cross?

No.

The choice was made in an act of freedom; more importantly, by an act of nothing but pure love. Being fully human and fully God, Christ had every means to get himself down from the tree, or hide from Pilate’s army. Then again, he had every means to turn stone into bread, to worship Satan, or tempt his Father by thrusting himself from a mountain. But he chose not to do such, just as he chose to be crucified for you and I. That makes things personal; conscience and morals become involved. Christ did not have to die to for us, he rather knew that his actions would bring a greater good.

We are therefore left to better appreciate this act above all other acts. We must come to recognize that our own freedom is a gift that we are called to share with each and every one of our own brothers and sisters. I believe that what I believe is not nearly as important as what we believe. And it is in this fashion that we strive to take something personal and make it something even more personal with each other. That my friends….is simply a must.

“Enforcing rules, especially in more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they have only the power to accuse.” -The Holy Spirit, from Paul Young’s Novel, The Shack.